Lucky Radley, one of the area’s top returning football players, has been expelled from Crespi High of Encino for academic reasons, and he could wind up at Serra League rival Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks or City Section contender Taft of Woodland Hills, according to Crespi head coach Jeremiah Ross.

Radley, a linebacker, had 110 tackles and five sacks as a sophomore last season to help Crespi finish as the Pac-5 Division runner-up.

He was projected to be one of the area’s top linebackers this coming season.

Ross said Radley has been in trouble at Crespi and was previously suspended, and that Radley had been accepted back on a “probationary basis.”

“He’s had some run-ins, and he’s no longer at Crespi. He practiced during the summer but hasn’t been with us for any of fall practice,” Ross said. “I wish him the best, and I think he’s a great kid. It’s unfortunate.”

Radley said he has met with Taft head coach Matt Kerstetter on Taft’s campus, but added that his mother doesn’t want him to go to a public school.

“He lives right up the street from Taft. It’s his home school,” Kerstetter said. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens. I’ve heard all about Lucky Radley and seen him at camps. We would love to have him. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Radley conceded Monday that he received a letter from Crespi stating he could no longer attend the school because he failed a summer geometry course, but Radley also said he has since passed an online geometry class and that he is meeting today with Crespi’s school principal about being reinstated.